The roof is on, the walls are up, and work on the interior is about to begin on the new, and quite large, Horseshoe Cincinnati. I drive right past this thing every day and it seems to be springing out of the ground like one of Jack's magic beans. While this place is going to be big and beautiful, the wisdom of it's location in what is arguably the worst possible part of town, is yet to be seen. Many, myself included, fell it is a big mistake to put our one and only casino in the highest murder and crime neighborhood in the city.

Oh well, that's politics for ya. Maybe having the jail directly across the street will help. Honestly. That's not a joke.

Also it has to fight the fact that we have no smoking laws here. I personally am all for that. However, for a casino, it is strictly bad news. It had a hugely adverse effect on the illinois casinos and i'm sure will not bode well here either. The exemption for this was shot down by our state legislature at the same time they voted to disallow an exemption in state law that would allow the casino to give out free drinks. Both of these measures would have been great to compete against the established casino right acrossed the border in Indiana.

For a state and city that are counting on four casinos ( Cincy,Columbus,Cleveland,Toledo) to generate the huge sums of revenue they project, they are making it very difficult for them to compete. I fear that soon after the initial excitement and newness wears off the locals will find that the odds and value just won't be here and will go back to the casinos right across the borders we have been used to playing at. Our casino being run by Loveman's boys certainly isn't going to help the players here none.

But hey! We're On Time and On Budget!